Jul. 26, 2013

Kenneth Stewart

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The victim of a Thursday afternoon Springfield shooting told police he was upset because the suspect could have easily shot one of his two young daughters.

An 18-year-old Springfield man, Kenneth Stewart, has been charged with six felonies, including first-degree assault, armed criminal action and endangering the welfare of a child.

According to a probable cause statement, officers were dispatched just after 12:30 p.m. to a house in the 600 block of Mount Vernon Street. Officers arrived and located Aaron Norfolk, 33, who appeared to have been shot three times.

Norfolk told officers he was working on a vehicle just south of his residence in the driveway when he heard a noise and looked back toward the fence, the statement said.

Norfolk said he recognized Stewart and saw he had a gun, according to the statement. Norfolk turned to run and picked up his two daughters, ages 3 and 5.

One of his daughters was holding his hand when he was shot, the statement said, but they were not harmed. A previous account from a spokesperson for the city said he had been holding his daughters when shot.

Norfolk said he thought Stewart was about 25-30 feet away when he started firing toward him, according to the statement.

After Norfolk heard the first shot, a second shot hit him in the back as he was trying to run away with his daughters, the statement said. He then said he heard at least five shots before he was able to make it to the front of the residence.

Witnesses told police that two males were seen running eastbound from the area after shots were fired, according to the statement. A witness told officers the suspects lived in the 400 block of West Mount Vernon.

Officers immediately responded to the area and contacted people inside the apartment by phone, according to the statement. Three people exited the residence and contacted officers. One matched the description provided by Norfolk and was allegedly identified as Stewart.

Officers located three spent .22 caliber shell casings in a backyard directly south of where the victim lived, the statement said. Seven bullet holes were found on the south end of the house.

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Inside the Mount Vernon apartment where the three people had been, an officer found a .22 caliber pistol in an air conditioning register in the kitchen, according to the statement. Clothing was also recovered at the apartment and it allegedly matched what witnesses had described the suspects as wearing.

Stewart admitted he shot at a male and also admitted there were children present during the shooting, according to the statement. Stewart also allegedly told police he was in the backyard when he fired the shots.

He also said he ran back to the apartment with another male and hid the pistol in the air conditioning vent that he used to shoot at the male, according to the statement. Stewart told police there have been ongoing problems between him and the individuals who live at the residence.

Stewart has also been charged with two other felonies for an unrelated incident that occurred the day before Norfolk was shot, according to online court documents.

A separate probable cause statement for that incident — used to charge Stewart — says officers were dispatched to the area of Elm Street and South Avenue on Wednesday after receiving several different 911 calls about suspects shooting at each other.

One witness told officers a male with dreadlocks came running westbound on a sidewalk while holding a handgun in his right hand in the 500 block of Mount Vernon Street, according to the statement. The witness said the suspect continued into the roadway on Mount Vernon and fired three shots down the street.

Officers were contacted by a man who said he knew who did the shooting because he was the one being shot at, the statement said. The man said the suspect was “Kenny,” and he used to live with him two years ago.

The man told police the men had a falling out and “Kenny” had been threatening to kill him ever since, according to the statement.

Stewart confirmed during an interview with police that he has had past problems with the man, the statement said. Stewart said the man was following him and “fired a gun into the air just to scare him.”

Stewart then told police he shot back toward the man “so they would stop following him,” according to the statement.

Stewart is being held at Greene County Jail on a $150,000 bond. A bond recommendation says Stewart has had prior arrests for third-degree domestic assault and unlawful use of a weapon. The recommendation also says Stewart has been found guilty for a misdemeanor assault.